Isn’t that obvious? It’s to present your business to the digital viewer, of course.
People talk about ‘brochure’ sites, in other words, websites that display your wares. But a good website is much more than that.
It needs to
- Engage potential clients quickly
- Have enough energy to keep people’s attention
- Solve – or at least indicate that you can – the visitor’s problems
- Operate seamlessly with no requirement for your visitor to work hard to find what they want
- Speak to your visitor directly in their language, but your voice.
To write great headlines and compelling copy you need an in-depth understanding of what your visitor wants. What problems can you solve for them? What is keeping them awake at night and what solving their problems will do for them.
It sounds pretty simple … so why do so many, otherwise attractive, websites start with a headline:
Welcome to our website
Which of those 5 points above does that tick?
I know it is polite – it’s like saying ‘How do you do?’, but you really don’t want a conversation around that! If I’m in a hurry to identify if you’ve got what I want, you’ve now made me jump over an obstacle that hasn’t helped me.
Using digital devices has decreased patience – everyone wants instant gratification and, if they don’t find it, they’re on to the next on their list. Flick, flick, flick.
Take a moment to think about the last time you were looking for something specific online. Did you care about being welcomed to the website? Did you even notice the headline? It wasn’t useful information, so you were already scrolling down looking for what you wanted.
The problem is that, if the website owner has started with a ‘nothing’ headline, it doesn’t bode well for what is further down the page.
The days of 300 words to describe your offering are long gone. You’ve got 100 words, if you’re lucky. Your headlines have to work harder to get people’s attention and encourage them to read even a single line.
The language needs to be focused on ‘YOU’ (not ‘we’) to reassure your reader that this is for them.
The sentences need to be crisp and concise, the paragraphs very short and the call to action impossible to miss.
Your website’s role is to persuade the visitor to take action; not to think about it and come back later (they won’t). Not to search through the menus for what they want (if they don’t find it at first look, they’ll go elsewhere). Not to try to look behind your polite headline and proud copy to see what good guys you all are, (they don’t care).
It needs to be obvious. Knee-jerk reaction – ‘Yes, found it’.
And every page on your website needs to do that – in isolation.
